Rudolf Jung (Author)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolf Alexander Jung (* 1907 in Laasphe , Westphalia , † 1973 in Berlin ) was a German writer and translator . As editor of the English-language section of the journal Der Kreis , Jung - under his best-known pseudonym Rudolf Burkhardt - was a central figure in homosexual journalism from the 1950s to 1960s.

Life

The information available on Jung's career before his time as a member of the district is partly imprecise, partly contradicting. He spent his youth in Giessen, where he completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller in the early 1920s . He then worked for the Eugen Diederichs publishing house in Jena until 1927 and later in various bookshops in Frankfurt am Main , Darmstadt , Munich , Bremen and Berlin until 1942 . According to other sources, he studied philosophy and worked as a teacher . From 1942 to 1945 he was a soldier, in the last year of the war he was taken prisoner by the Americans and came to the USA , where he - according to his own account - worked on the development of film material in Hollywood after the end of the war . After returning to Germany, he worked as a translator for the American military government in Bremen and later as a teacher in the Soviet occupation zone . In the GDR he is said to have been charged with an offense against Section 175 around 1950 . Jung, who had already been persecuted as a homosexual during National Socialism , escaped conviction by fleeing to England. From 1950 to 1955 he was a lecturer at the German Department of the University of Bristol . Although Jung, according to his own statements, had already written for homosexual friendship papers in the years of the Weimar Republic , the actual beginning of his journalistic activity in this area was probably not before his time in England.

As an employee (since 1951) of the Zurich magazine Der Kreis , Jung became friends with its publisher, the actor Karl Meier (actor) . This enabled him to move to Switzerland in 1955 , where he became Meier's secretary and closest collaborator. In this position, Jung was the only employee of the circle , alongside Meier himself , who received a modest salary until 1967 . Under the pseudonym Rudolf Burkhardt , he took over the editing of the newly founded English section of the magazine. His tasks also included correcting the German-language section of the magazine and handling the extensive correspondence with subscribers all over the world. Jung's skills as a translator and editor, based on his excellent knowledge of the English language as well as Anglo-American literature and culture, contributed significantly to the high literary standard of the magazine. He recruited a number of productive employees for the circle , including the two Americans James Fugaté and Samuel M. Steward , whose work also became known to the German readers of the magazine through its translations. In addition, Jung wrote as Rudolf Burkhardt and under other pseudonyms (u. A. R. Young , Christian Graf , Ernst Ohlmann and Coc-yo ) numerous short stories, poems, essays and book reviews for the county , which were reprinted in part in German Friendship leaves. Some of his more extensive essays and translations were also distributed in paperback reprints by the circle, for example his commentary on the sensational Wolfenden Report , which in 1957 recommended the British government to legalize homosexual contacts between consenting adults.

In addition to his work for the circle , which ceased its publication in 1967 due to dwindling subscriber numbers, Jung worked for a Zurich bookstore until 1968, then for the library of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology until his retirement in 1972 . In 1966 he had acquired Swiss citizenship, but maintained an apartment in Berlin until his death, which he shared with his adopted son. After the circle was closed , Jung occasionally wrote for the German and Swiss gay press and is said to have been pursuing plans for a new magazine project. Other literary plans also failed: Jung was unable to find a publisher for his German translation of James Fugatés' novel Quatrefoil (1950), which was published under the pseudonym James Barr and is now a classic of American homosexual literature.

Works

  • Rudolf Burkhardt (d. I. Rudolf Jung): The storm breaks loose. The dispute over the Wolfenden Report in England. A report on a report. Commentaries and translations, Zurich 1957 (Der Kreis publishing house).

The anthology by Hohmann and Lifka listed under literature contains several literary texts that Jung published in the circle under his pseudonym Christian Graf .

literature

  • Erich Lifka : Rudolf Jung-Burkhardt - His life and work, in: The circle. Stories and photos, selected, explained a. ed. v. Joachim S. Hohmann with the assistance of v. Erich Lifka. Frankfurt / M., Berlin 1980, pp. 261-265. - Personal memories of Lifka, who is friends with Jung, which are imprecise in details (for example, the date of birth is given as 1912).
  • Hubert C. Kennedy : The Ideal Gay Man. The Story of The Circle, Haworth, Binghamton / New York 1999; German: The circle. A magazine and its program, Verlag Rosa Winkel, Berlin 1999 (Rosa Winkel library; Vol. 39), ISBN 3861490846 - General information on the history of the magazine, with numerous information on Jung's literary activity, but only vague information on his biography.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Jung, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jung, Rudolf Alexander (full name); Burkhardt, Rudolf (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Laasphe , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH 1973
Place of death Berlin